What I've Been Reading: The 'digest newsletter' shows no signs of slowing + Google decides publishers can't do offers

And a look at the innovations in this year's Regional Press Awards

Good afternoon,

And the What I’ve Been Reading digest is back in its usual format for this afternoon, with three interesting bits from across the digital media landscape for you to - errr - digest.

The rise, and rise, of the digest newsletter - various - the irony of writing about a digest in the digest is not lost, but there’s a good piece from Jim Edwards in Press Gazette where he explores the model behind 1440 where they focus on the life-time of an email subscriber and accept you’re going to lose some over time. We’re continuing to see an increase in digest-type newsletters here in the UK too - from Michael Macleod expanding his ‘Minute’ model from Edinburgh to also include London, the London Spy starting to motor on Substack, The Knot in Stoke-on-Trent and we’re experimenting with The Lancashire Lead too.

Google cracks down on affiliates content - Barry Adams, LinkedIn - some good insight from Barry in a series of LinkedIn posts about the recent Google update which appears to have hit discounts/couponing on a number of publisher sites very hard. As Lily Ray then goes on to point out, media having discounts or offers for readers is nothing new - I can remember when I started at Media Wales in 2010 there was nothing like a Greggs sausage roll offer on the front of the South Wales Echo to shift paper sales (and I thought it was my council-planning splash, more fool me). There’s also some insight on this from Stephen Hurrell too.

What was innovative in this year’s Regional Press Awards? - RPA site - there’s a strong piece on BehindLocalNews about the need for the Regional Press Awards to reflect the diversity of those who work in the local media industry in 2024 (rather than it being like 1974). In amongst the categories I thought I’d take a flick through the ‘digital initiative of the year’ for what caught the judges eyes beyond the website of the year, newspaper of the year and individual journo awards, here’s what was on the shortlist and the link to their citations.

Winner - Public Notices Portal - brings together the feeds from all the public notices across local titles in one place for the public to browse. Well done to Mick Robins and the team (I witnessed first hand the great work they did at InYourArea).

Commended - The Northern Agenda - I’ve followed Rob’s newsletter since inception, it’s a great read and an important voice in this election year, as the judges pointed out.

Shortlisted - Curiously, MEN - some very strong social video coming out of this team, showing that regional media can innovate in the space alongside start-ups.

Shortlisted - Newsquest AI tool - while many are talking about what they will do with AI, then Jody and team are off and running with a very clear focus on using AI tools to free up reporters time to produce more original content (while ensuring community content is serviced for print and digital).

Shortlisted - Bake On Bake Off newsletter - Laura is a superb example of a journalist owning their subject, and it doesn’t have to be regional specific. Her newsletter has risen nicely (sorry!) since its inception in lockdown.

Shortlisted - WalesOnline, immersive storytelling - the team in Cardiff are superb at utilising the Shorthand tool for long-form storytelling.

Shortlisted - WhatsApp Communities - I’ve featured the work being done by Dan, Jenna and Rachel and the team a few times now, all it takes is WhatsApp to elevate the discovery of Channels and Communities and this could be a very big referral traffic gamechanger. In the meantime, it’s perhaps better it isn’t, as it’s a way to build a solid direct connection with audiences. You can see my reflections on utilising WhatsApp Channels for Blog Preston so far (as we truck on towards 500 followers).

And finally, the Journalism Leadership & Innovation programme at the University of Central Lancashire has its intensive week next week at the Preston campus. Included in the week is an afternoon forum called Sustainable Growth: Balancing profit and purpose in news media. Three good sessions planned, it's free to attend either in person in the Media Factory or you can join online via Teams. Line-up below.

That’s all for this week, have a good one and enjoy the heatwave (if you’re in the UK!).

Keep going.

Ed